LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  of  ILLINOIS. 

THE 

Elective  System 

IN 


Engineering-  Colleges. 


BY 

M.  E.  WADSWORTH,  Ph.D., 

Director  of  the  Michigan  Mining  School, 
Houghton,  Mich. 


[Reprinted  from  the  Proceedings  of  the  Society  for  the  Promotion  of 
Engineering  Education,  Buffalo  Meeting,  1896.] 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2017  with  funding  from 

University  of  Illinois  Urbana-Champaign  Alternates 


https://archive.org/details/eldctivesystemin00wads_0 


THE  ELECTIVE  SYSTEM  IN  ENGINEERING 
COLLEGES. 

BY  M.  EDWARD  WADSWORTH. 

Director  of  the  Michigan  Mining  School,  Houghton,  Mich. 

It  was  my  privilege  to  present,  for  your  considera- 
tion last  year,  a paper  on  the  elective  system  as  adopted 
in  the  Michigan  Mining  School ; it  is  now  my  purpose 
to  continue  this  subject  by  presenting  some  further 
particulars,  and  pointing  out  the  conditions  under 
which  this  system  might  with  great  advantage  be  in- 
troduced into  other  engineering  colleges. 

To  establish  a clear  understanding  between  the  audi- 
tor and  the  author,  it  is  desirable  to  divide  the  matter 
up  into  heads  which  are  regarded  as  cardinal  points 
in  the  argument. 

I.  Engineering  is  a Learned  Profession. 

This  will  probably  be  admitted  without  discussion  ; 
hence  it  clearly  follows  that  studies  forming  an  inte- 
gral part  of  the  course  in  all  engineering  colleges,  are 
just  as  truly  professional  studies  as  are  those  given  in 
schools  devoted  to  Theology,  Law  and  Medicine.  Those 
who  follow  the  last  named  professions  have  certainly 
not  excelled  the  engineer,  if  they  have  equalled  him, 
in  the  task  of  promoting  the  happiness,  welfare  and 
morality  of  mankind  ; nor  can  it  be  proven  that  suc- 
cess in  either  of  these  professions  requires  deeper  study, 
higher  intellect,  more  experience  with  men  and  things, 
or  better  balanced  judgment,  than  is  needed  for  the 
successful  presentation  of  engineering  projects.  Why, 

(3) 


4 


THE  ELECTIVE  SYSTEM. 


then,  does  the  public  at  large  hold  the  engineering 
profession  inferior  to  the  others  just  mentioned?  The 
answer  is  because  we  ourselves  have  set  them  the  ex- 
ample, and  they  accept  the  engineer  at  our  valuation. 
Educators  have,  unconsciously  perhaps,  but  none  the 
less  truly,  proclaimed  their  own  conviction  of  the  in- 
feriority of  an  engineer’s  mental  needs  and  equipment 
by  the  introduction  and  continued  retention  of 

II.  Non-Essential  Studies  in  Engineering  Courses. 

This  mistake  naturally  arose  from  the  fact  that  the 
early  engineering  schools  or  courses  were  planned  in 
the  now  clearly  erroneous  assumption  that  their  train- 
ing must  include  a so-called  liberal  education,  or  else 
must  prove  itself  to  be  the  equivalent  of  the  classical 
courses  then  in  vogue.  Further,  most  of  these  early 
engineering  courses  were  grafted  into  older  institutions, 
under  the  control  of  a literary  or  classical  faculty  ; 
men  whose  very  training  and  success  in  their  chosen 
lines  disqualified  them  to  perceive  that  the  study  of 
engineering,  if  properly  conducted,  affords  just  as  rigid, 
logical  and  powerful  a mental  training,  as  can  be  ob- 
tained through  the  study  of  any  other  subjects  what- 
ever. Nor  has  the  day  yet  passed  when  men  can  be 
found  who  strenuously  maintain  that  such  utilitarian 
studies  tend  to  warp  and  narrow  the  intellect ; and  in 
their  laudable  efforts  to  overcome  an  imaginary  evil, 
they  persist  in  injecting  into  engineering  courses  such 
subjects  as  Christian  Evidences,  British  Essayists,  His- 
tory of  English  Literature,  Ethics,  Hygiene,  Greek, 
etc.  That  these  subjects  are  worthy  of  study  and  af- 
ford valuable  educational  training  is  freely  conceded ; 


THE  ELECTIVE  SYSTEM. 


5 


that  they  excel  engineering  subjects  as  tools  for 
sharpening  the  intellect,  or  that  they  have  the  slightest 
hearing  upon  the  professional  training  of  an  engineer, 
or  any  legitimate  place  in  an  engineering  course,  is 
emphatically  denied.  If  the  engineering  faculty  deems 
a knowledge  of  such  subjects  essential,  it  should  de- 
mand it  as  an  entrance  requirement  of  the  engineering 
college.  To  include  them  as  a part  of  a technical 
course  is  as  illogical  and  unseemly  as  to  demand  that 
law  students  pursue  a course  on  pumps,  or  medical 
students  one  on  roof-trusses,  or  theological  students  one 
on  thermo-dynamics.  The  engineering  faculty,  and 
they  alone,  are  the  parties  competent  to  formulate  the 
list  of  studies  for  engineering  students,  and  their  de- 
cision in  such  matters  must  be  final,  if  engineering 
courses  are  to  be  freed  from  driftwood  and  barnacles. 

III.  The  Natural  Sequence  of  Studies  must  be 
Observed. 

<Sy' 

^4—  It  is  objected  by  many  (1)  that  under  the  elective 
0'5  system  the  student  will  receive  only  a disorganized 
course,  and  (2)  he  will  finally  graduate  with  a training 
£ which  is  insufficient,  because  it  lacks  both  depth  and 
comprehensiveness.  Neither  objection  is  sound,  if  the 
^course  is  in  competent  hands.  The  professor  of  each 
branch  unquestionably  knowrs  wdiat  subjects  a student 
must  have  mastered  in  order  to  profit  from  his  own 
instruction ; hence,  if  these  are  rigidly  demanded,  his 
students  must  necessarily  have  received  a systematic 
and  thorough  training  in  everything  having  a real 
bearing  on  any  work  they  elect  to  take  up.  Strict  ob- 
servance of  the  sequence  of  studies  will,  with  mathe- 


6 


THE  ELECTIVE  SYSTEM. 


matical  certainty,  force  each  student  to  go  thoroughly 
over  every  subject  preparatory  to  every  other  subject 
elected ; hence  a disorganized  course  becomes  impossi- 
ble. It  thus  appears  that,  by  this  system,  depth  is  not 
sacrificed,  but  rather  increased. 

Lack  of  comprehensiveness  is  easily  and  effectively 
guarded  against,  by  demanding  for  graduation  as  many 
courses  as  a good  student  can  successfully  carry  in  the 
time  usually  available  for  a college  course.  Indeed, 
if  the  natural  sequence  of  studies  be  rigidly  observed, 
it  is  advantageous  and  perfectly  feasible  to  throw  down 
the  artificial  barriers  that  have  grown  up  between  the 
different  branches  of  engineering,  and  thereby  allow 
the  students  to  enter  upon  a general  engineering  train- 
ing, without  any  sacrifice  of  thorough  work,  or  any 
friction  between  various  departments.  Students  can 
select  courses  in  harmony  with  their  dispositions  and 
abilities ; the  differentiation  will  take  place  naturally. 
While  the  degree  will  not  mean  that  all  have  taken  the 
same  studies,  it  will  mean  that  every  study  has  been 
prosecuted  with  success  (which  is  never  the  case  with  a 
rigid  or  optional  system).  Further,  it  will  mean  that 
the  student  has  received  a better  training  for  his  life 
work  than  can  be  given  under  any  rigid  or  optional 
system.  Quality,  not  quantity,  is  the  distinguishing 
feature  of  this  plan. 

There  is  no  reason  whatever  why  the  elective  system 
should  be  confined  to  engineering  colleges  alone 
among  professional  institutions.  If  the  sequence  of 
studies,  which  is  to  the  elective  system  what  the  key- 
stone is  to  an  arch,  is  rigidly  observed,  the  system  can 
with  advantage  be  introduced  into  Law,  Medical,  The- 
ological or  other  professional  colleges. 


THE  ELECTIVE  SYSTEM. 


7 


IV.  The  Elective  System  clearly  shows  up  In- 
ferior Teaching,  Superfluous  Subjects  and 
Incompetent  Professors. 

As  each  professor  rigidly  demands  proficiency  in  all 
branches  preparatory  to  his  subjects,  every  student  in 
a class  must  in  a measure  serve  as  an  exponent  of  the 
ability,  thoroughness  or  honesty  of  such  other  pro- 
fessors as  have  had  charge  of  his  previous  studies. 
Any  evidence  of  general  inferiority  in  training  in  any 
one  subject  is  quickly  detected,  and  the  remedy  should 
be  promptly  applied. 

Everyone  who  has  had  any  experience  under  the 
rigid  system  knows  fully  that  the  range  and  nature  of 
subjects  in  such  courses  are  so  broad  that  no  pupil  is 
endowed  with  sufficient  talent  to  excel  in  all  these 
studies,  while  the  majority  of  students  attain  only  a 
medium  standing  in  various  subjects.  Excellence  in 
some  branches  is  therefore  considered  to  atone  for  de- 
ficiency in  others,  and  the  student  is  passed.  Such  a 
procedure  is  neither  necessary  nor  permissible  under 
the  elective  system,  and  if  resorted  to  cannot  fail  to 
expose  the  instructor  responsible  for  it. 

Should  a professor  introduce  courses  foreign  to  the 
work  of  the  school,  the  fact  is  quickly  made  apparent, 
because  no  other  professor  prescribes  such  courses  as 
preparatory  to  his  own,  nor  do  the  students  elect  them. 
Hence,  this  system  does  away  completely  with  all 
padded  courses,  incompetent  instruction,  or  irrelevant 
matters  given  merely  to  fill  in  a certain  amount  of 
time.  It  makes  such  instruction  serve  as  a check  on 
the  proficiency  of  the  others,  produces  a coordinate 
system  of  studies,  and  renders  possible  educational 


8 


THE  ELECTIVE  SYSTEM. 


results  which  under  the  old  systems  would  demand  a 
much  larger  faculty. 

V.  The  Elective  System  is  the  only  one  which 
can  make  Full  Provision  for  the  Differ- 
ences in  Temperament,  Taste  and  Tal- 
ents, WHICH  MUST  ALWAYS  EXIST  BE- 
TWEEN the  Various  Members 
of  the  Student  Body. 

The  province  of  an  educational  course  is  to  develop 
and  sharpen  the  intellect ; it  cannot  create  brains,  nor 
can  it  by  any  method  whatever  eliminate  those  dif- 
ferences in  men  which  are  implanted  in  them  by  the 
Author  of  Nature.  It  is  difficult  to  understand  why 
the  attempt  should  be  made  to  perpetuate  an  educa- 
tional bed  of  Procrustes ; for  the  writer  maintains  that 
this  very  thing  is  attempted  when,  contrary  to  the 
teachings  of  Nature,  it  is  insisted  that  students  be 
divided  up  into  arbitrary  classes,  every  member  of 
which  must  be  forced  to  go  through  exactly  the  same 
scheme  of  studies  without  reference  to  his  natural 
tastes  and  abilities.  The  results  of  this  procedure  are 
too  well  known  to  need  further  comment  here. 

Under  the  elective  system  the  student  selects  that 
work  for  which  he  has  been  properly  endowed  by 
nature ; he  takes  far  greater  interest  in  it,  and  the  re- 
sults are  deep  and  permanent.  So  marked  is  this 
that  no  instructor  in  the  Michigan  Mining  School  now 
hesitates  to  demand  of  his  men  far  higher  and  better 
work  than  even  the  most  sanguine  could  ever  hope  to 
get  under  the  old  rigid  system.  Even  if  the  elective 
system  does  demand  higher  work  in  each  branch,  and 


THE  ELECTIVE  SYSTEM 


9 


a more  proficient  preparation  for  each  study,  the  stu- 
dent himself  readily  sees  the  object  and  justice  of  each 
requirement,  and  cheerfully  accepts  an  obligation 
which  carries  with  it  freedom  in  choice  of  studies  and 
avoidance  of  those  non-essential.  All  this  acts  like 
oil  upon  the  machinery,  and  enables  the  product  to  be 
turned  out  with  little  noise,  friction  and  wear  and 
tear. 

It  is  frequently  urged  that  a student  is  not  com-  j 
petent  to  draw  up  a proper  list  of  electives.  If  this  t' 
statement  be  true,  does  it  not  carry  with  it  the  inevi-  / 
table  conclusion  that  he  is  even  less  able  to  select  his  | 
studies  for  four  years,  before  he  has  had  even  a day’s  ( 
experience  in  the  course?  Is  not  this  exactly  what  i 
he  is  required  to  do,  when  he  is  held  to  a rigid  or  * 
optional  system? 

But  experience  shows  that  this  statement  has  no 
basis  in  fact.  The  natural  sequence  of  studies  guides 
the  pupil  when  making  his  selection,  and,  assisted  by 
advice  from  his  teachers,  which  is  always  freely  given, 
he  rarely  goes  astray,  unless  his  abilities  and  tastes  are 
misjudged.  This  rarely  happens  and  the  mistake  is 
easily  remedied.  No  such  means  of  rectifying  even 
slight  mistakes  exists  under  a rigid  or  optional  system. 

It  is  necessary  to  take  the  “system  ” and  take  all  of  it, 
or  to  take  nothing.  It  may  not  be  amiss  to  call  atten- 
tion to  an  exactly  parallel  case  in  actual  engineering 
practice.  Those  engaged  in  electrical  work  know  that 
a comparatively  short  time  ago  every  electrical  plant, 
from  dynamo  to  lamps,  was  a representation  of  some 
“system,”  and  it  is  likewise  known  that  not  one  of 
those  systems  was  free  from  many  defects  in  details. 


10 


THE  ELECTIVE  SYSTEM. 


To-day  all  this  is  changed.  An  electrical  plant  may 
represent  the  product  of  a dozen  or  more  different 
makers  or  “ systems, ” because  each  part  has  been 
selected  solely  on  its  merits  for  the  particular  purpose 
in  view.  It  represents  one  case  of  the  beneficient 
workings  of  the  elective  system  in  the  practical  affairs 
of  life. 

Under  the  rigid  system,  a student  who  finds  that 
he  has  misjudged  his  abilities  must  either  struggle 
through  in  some  way,  thereby  building  for  his  future 
a structure  which  is  rickety  and  valueless,  or  he  must 
quit  the  course  altogether,  receiving,  as  a reward  for 
his  work  up  to  date,  only  a practically  worthless  foun- 
dation for  a mental  structure  which  will  never  be  com- 
pleted. In  the  case  of  a similar  mistake  under  the 
elective  system,  the  student  may  indeed  have  to 
change  some  of  the  lines  of  the  edifice,  but  little  of  the 
material  is  wasted,  since  it  can  nearly  all  be  used  again 
in  a new  structures  designed  with  a better  knowledge 
of  his  capacity  and  needs. 

Since  engineering  is  largely  a matter  of  economics, 
is  it  not  wise  to  have  the  student  make  the  first  appli- 
cation of  this  principle  when  expending  his  own  energy 
and  time? 

VI.  Certain  Conditions  are  Essential  if  the  Elec- 
tive System  is  to  be  a Success. 

It  must  be  clearly  recognized  that  every  educational 
institution  has  its  individual  peculiarities ; hence  be- 
fore undertaking  the  introduction  of  a new  system,  or 
a modification  of  an  old  one,  every  school  must  make 
an  exhaustive  inquiry  to  determine  the  relations  be- 


THE  ELECTIVE  SYSTEM. 


11 


tween  the  proposed  course  and  its  environment,  con- 
stituency, faculty,  trustees,  equipment,  object,  etc. 
That  scheme  which  is  most  in  harmony  with  these 
should  be  adopted,  and  in  determining  which  one 
most  nearly  meets  the  required  conditions,  nothing  is 
more  necessary  than  a liberal  use  of  that  very  rare 
commodity,  common  sense. 

It  is  surely  unnecessary,  when  addressing  a body  of 
engineering  educators,  to  point  out  the  uselessness  of 
mere  copyists  or  servile  imitators ; temporary  success 
may  crown  their  efforts  in  some  cases,  but  not  in  one 
like  this,  because  in  every  problem  the  requirements 
are  so  diverse.  In  every  case  the  scheme  must  be 
worked  out  anew,  in  every  detail,  from  the  very  foun- 
dation. 

If  the  writer  were  asked  whether  he  would  intro- 
duce into  any  other  school  in  America  the  elective 
system  as  now  adopted  in  the  Michigan  Mining  School, 
he  could  conscientiously  give  but  one  answer — most 
emphatically,  “No.”  The  reason  for  this  is  that,  while 
the  system  seems  perfectly  in  harmony  with  all  its 
needs,  this  school  is  unique  in  its  nature,  and  its  coun- 
terpart is  not  to  be  found  elsewhere  in  this  or  any 
other  country.  While  its  system  and  methods  are  the 
proper  ones  for  this  school  because  they  were  specially 
designed  to  answer  its  wants,  they  will  no  more  meet 
perfectly  the  diverse  necessities  of  other  schools,  than 
will  one  prescription  cure  every  disease. 

Notwithstanding  this,  it  is  firmly  believed  that  the 
logic  of  the  system  is  perfectly  sound,  and  contains 
more  largely  than  any  other  the  elements  of  success 
for  any  school,  if  its  details  are  carefully  and  consci- 


12 


THE  ELECTIVE  SYSTEM. 


entiously  worked  out  so  as  to  meet  the  peculiar  needs 
of  each  institution.  It  seems  impossible  for  any  edu- 
cator to  study  exhaustively  the  history  of  education 
and  the  spirit  and  needs  of  our  own  time,  and  then 
fail  to  draw  the  conclusion  as  stated  to  the  Society  last 
year,  that  the  elective  system  is  the  coming  system, 
and  that  sooner  or  later  it  will  find  its  way  into  every 
institution  of  higher  learning  in  the  land. 

Every  educational  scheme,  and  the  elective  system 
more  than  any  other,  demands  for  success  that  schools 
be  conducted  on  sound  business  principles,  the  most 
important  of  which  are  here  mainly  condensed  from 
the  writer’s  first  “ Report  to  the  Board  of  Control  of 
the  Michigan  Mining  School.”*  The  governing  board 
must  be  composed  of  experienced,  able,  judicious  and 
conscientious  men  ; they  need  not  of  necessity  be  edu- 
cators or  engineers,  but  they  should  have  the  wisdom 
to  perceive  that  the  successful  direction  of  a higher 
educational  institution  requires  experience  and  ability 
on  a par  with  that  demanded  in  any  other  business 
or  profession.  They  must  realize  that  no  success  can 
crown  their  efforts  unless  they  clearly  understand  that 
their  duty  consists  entirely  in  formulating  the  objects 
of  the  institution,  providing  the  means  to  reach  those 
objects,  choosing  an  able  and  discreet  Director  or  Pres- 
ident, and  seeing  that  he  attends  to  his  duties.  Assump- 
tion of  any  other  power  is  mathematically  certain  to 
cause  friction  and  throw  painful  obstacles  in  the  way 
of  progress. 

It  is  clearly  evident  that  a board  will  be  more  ex- 
cellent in  proportion  as  its  members  are  graduates  of 

* Pp.  70-80. 


THE  ELECTIVE  SYSTEM. 


13 


higher  institutions  of  learning,  and  if  possible,  one 
similar  to  that  over  which  they  are  presiding. 

The  success  of  the  institution  depends  largely  upon 
the  chief  executive  officer  and  the  faithfulness  with 
which  he  is  supported  by  the  board  and  faculty.  The 
president  need  not  of  necessity  be  an  engineer,  but  it 
is  absolutely  indispensable  that  he  be  an  able  and  ex- 
perienced educator,  a man  of  broad  gauge,  liberal  spirit, 
unbounded  energy,  perseverance  and  firmness.  To 
him  should  be  left,  without  any  interference  whatever, 
the  carrying  out  of  the  plans  formulated  by  the  board, 
and  he  should  be  held  strictly  accountable  for  results. 
Nothing  short  of  incompetence  should  be  deemed  a 
sufficient  reason  for  interfering  with  his  plans. 

The  president  must  make  a study  of  the  institution 
as  a whole ; formulate  the  results  to  be  reached  by 
each  official  of  the  school  in  order  to  carry  out  the  gen- 
eral scheme ; see  that  these  results  are  obtained  ; be 
empowered  to  discharge,  without  recourse  to  others, 
any  official  found  to  be  incompetent.  He  must  allow 
each  of  his  associate  officers  full  liberty  to  reach  in  his 
own  way  the  results  demanded  of  him,  rigidly  abstain 
from  interfering  with  his  work,  and  aid  him  whenever 
possible.  With  a suitable  president,  competent  faculty 
and  close  adherence  to  these  methods,  it  is  possible  to 
introduce  an  elective  system  which  will  meet  the  needs 
of  the  student  and  every  live  professor,  and  show  up 
incompetents.  It  will  force  the  removal  of  that  kind 
of  driftwood  which  lumbers  up  so  many  of  our  edu- 
cational institutions,  simply  because  the  president  is 
not  granted  the  proper  authority  to  handle  such  ma- 
terial and  lacks  the  backbone  to  demand  its  removal 


14 


THE  ELECTIVE  SYSTEM. 


by  the  board.  Unless  someone  oversees  the  instruc- 
tors and  is  empowered  to  remove  incompetents,  suc- 
cess will  not  be  likely  to  crown  any  scheme,  and  least 
of  all  the  elective  system. 

VII.  The  Advantages  of  the  Elective  System. 

They  may  be  briefly  enumerated  as  follows : 

(a)  It  lightens  the  labor  of  the  instructors,  i.  e.,  re- 
moves much  of  the  drudgery,  makes  the  work  far  more 
a labor  of  love,  and  enables  each  one  to  give  as  ex- 
tended a course  in  his  department  as  he  wishes,  with- 
out interfering  with  another  professor. 

(b)  It  greatly  reduces  the  friction  between  faculty 
and  students,  almost  does  away  with  faculty  meetings, 
and  renders  the  necessary  regulations  few  in  number. 

(c)  It  renders  examinations  almost  unnecessary, 
grades  the  student  by  his  daily  work,  removes  the  pad- 
ding of  courses,  shows  up  inefficient  teachers,  and 
allows  the  professors  and  the  institution  to  get  rid  of 
incompetent  pupils  with  almost  no  friction. 

(d)  It  results  in  better  and  higher  work  in  each 
subject,  and  develops  the  best  that  is  in  each  student. 

(i e ) It  is  more  economical,  both  in  money  and  time, 
than  either  the  required  or  optional  systems,  i.  e .,  a 
smaller  faculty  accomplishes  the  same  results. 

(/)  It  enables  an  institution  to  keep  pace  with  the 
rapid  development  of  the  various  branches  of  engi- 
neering, without  the  introduction  of  new  faculties  and 
new  degrees  with  their  attendant  evils. 

(g)  It  serves  as  a safety  valve  for  the  students’  pent 
up  energies,  and  almost  does  away  with  class  rebel- 
lions, especially  those  due  to  some  particularly  obnox- 
(5) 


THE  ELECTIVE  SYSTEM. 


15 


ious  professor,  or  to  the  suspension  of  some  popular 
student. 

(h)  It  does  away  with  the  practice  of  hazing  and 
most  of  the  other  disgraceful  customs  of  students  in 
educational  institutions  ; it  renders  the  student  more 
manly,  and  in  a professional  school  allows  a man  to 
attend  to  athletics  and  his  studies,  without  that  de- 
moralizing sacrifice  of  truth  so  fearfully  prevalent. 

(i)  It  proclaims  to  the  public,  and  with  perfect 
truthfulness,  that  not  only  has  the  student  “gone 
through”  certain  studies  to  obtain  a degree,  but  that 
each  of  those  studies  has  “gone  through”  him;  in 
other  words,  that  no  student  has  been  allowed  to  slide 
through  some  studies  in  which  he  was  weak,  because 
there  were  others  in  which  he  was  proficient;  nor  has 
he  been  graduated  simply  because  of  his  excellence  in 
athletics. 

(j)  It  unites  into  one  harmonious  whole  the 
studies  that  are  usually  classed  as  undergraduate  with 
those  that  are  called  graduate,  and  leads  the  student 
to  consider  them  all  as  desiderata  for  his  work.  It 
broadens  his  field  of  view,  inclines  him  to  pursue 
further  study,  and  diminishes  his  tendency  to  contract 
the  megacephalous  disease. 

VIII.  Experience  in  the  Use  of  the  Elective 
System  at  the  Michigan  Mining  School. 

When  the  writer  assumed  the  position  of  Director 
of  the  Michigan  Mining  School,  nine  years  ago,  the  in- 
stitution was  in  its  infancy,  and  no  systematic  course 
of  instruction  had  been  laid  out.  The  rigid  system 
usual  in  engineering  schools  was  the  only  one  then 


16 


THE  ELECTIVE  SYSTEM. 


available,  and  it  was  accordingly  introduced.  The  rapid 
development  of  the  school  soon  pushed  this  system  to 
its  ultimate  results,  namely,  the  wishes  of  each  mem- 
ber of  the  faculty  as  to  the  work  he  thought  should 
be  given  in  his  department  were  gratified.  There  re- 
sulted, in  consequence,  an  engineering  course  which 
could  be  successfully  coped  with,  only  by  one  excep- 
tionably  able  both  mentally  and  bodily.  Seven  to 
nine  hours  daily  were  needed  in  the  class-room  and 
laboratory,  and  all  preparation  for  this  work  had  to  be 
done  in  outside  hours. 

Every  instructor  realized  that  the  system  was  crush- 
ing under  its  own  weight,  and  that  prompt  relief  was 
imperatively  necessary.  When  casting  about  for  a 
solution  of  the  long  foreseen  difficulty,  the  Di- 
rector, among  other  things,  interviewed  each  member 
of  the  faculty,  separately,  as  to  his  views  on  the 
desirability  and  practicability  of  an  elective  system. 
He  properly  considered  that  such  views  would  be  more 
than  usually  valuable,  since  the  faculty  then  contained 
men  who  were  not  only  experienced  in  the  methods 
and  systems  used  in  schools  in  Germany  and  in  the 
Universities  of  Harvard,  Pennsylvania,  Wisconsin, 
Ohio  and  Georgetown ; Colby  and  Bowdoin  Colleges ; 
and  the  Michigan  Agricultural  College ; but  they  were 
also  familiar  with  the  methods  employed  in  Columbia, 
the  University  of  Michigan,  the  Massachusetts  Insti- 
tute of  Technology,  and  in  most  of  the  other  leading 
schools  of  the  country.  The  consensus  of  opinion  was 
that  such  a system,  while  advantageous  in  a literary 
institution,  presented  insurmountable  obstacles  to  its 
introduction  in  a technical  institution  like  the  Michi- 


THE  ELECTIVE  SYSTEM. 


17 


gan  Mining  School.  The  Director,  however,  saw  no 
other  solution  for  the  difficulties  then  encompassing 
the  course  of  study,  and,  notwithstanding  the  discour- 
aging outlook,  determined  to  test  the  practicability  of 
laying  out  a suitable  scheme ; from  time  to  time  he 
consulted  each  instructor  as  to  his  wishes  in  all  mat- 
ters relating  to  his  department.  After  several  months7 
labor  the  details  of  the  plan  were  finally  worked  out, 
obstacles  surmounted,  conflicting  interests  harmonized, 
and  the  completed  work  submitted  to  the  faculty  and 
the  board.  It  was  promptly  and  unanimously  adopted 
by  both  bodies,  and  has  proven  to  be  the  greatest  single 
advance  the  Michigan  Mining  School  has  ever  made. 

The  faculty  meetings  have  been  reduced  from  one 
or  more  weekly  to  five  in  forty-five  weeks,  and,  unless 
some  emergency  arises,  one  or  two  meetings  a year 
will  in  the  future  be  all  that  will  be  necessary  to  trans- 
act the  business  that  is  required  of  the  faculty  as  a 
body. 

The  system  has  also  brought  about  a simplification 
of  the  other  work  and  enables  it  to  be  rapidly  done, 
because  the  Director  is  charged  with  the  duties  that 
usually  devolve  upon  a faculty,  and  because  each  pro- 
fessor has  absolute  control  over  his  department  and 
the  students  in  his  classes.  The  professors  in  charge 
of  departments  are  responsible  to  the  Director,  while 
each  of  the  other  instructors  is  directly  responsible  to 
the  head  of  the  department  with  which  he  is  connected. 

The  regulations  of  the  school  have  been  greatly  re- 
duced in  number,  and  so  arranged  that  the  student 
himself  is  specially  interested  in  seeing  that  they  are 
observed,  since  if  they  are  not,  his  own  act  takes  him 


18 


THE  ELECTIVE  SYSTEM. 


out  of  the  institution  and  closes  the  door  behind  him, 
in  most  cases  without  the  intervention  of  the  faculty 
or  Director.  Everyone  who  has  debated  long  hours 
over  the  case  of  some  student,  whether  it  was  “ to 
be  or  not  to  be,”  can  realize  what  a relief  such  au- 
tomatic action  is  for  a long  suffering  faculty.  These 
changes  have  all  grown  naturally  out  of  the  elective 
system,  with  the  result  that  the  Michigan  Mining 
School  has  had  one  of  the  pleasantest,  most  profitable 
and  harmonious  years  it  has  ever  experienced,  although 
it  has  never  developed  enough  disturbance  in  its  his- 
tory for  the  newspapers  to  take  up  its  discussion.  Not 
a single  professor  or  student  desires  to,  or  would  go 
back  to  the  old  system  and  while  further  experience 
will  undoubtedly  indicate  various  modifications  of  de- 
tails, it  can  certainly  be  considered  at  this  time  that 
the  elective  system  is  an  unqualified  success. 

Discussion. 

Professor  DeYolson  Wood  wrote  that  he  thought 
elective  studies  in  engineering  courses  are,  as  a rule, 
demoralizing,  that  they  lower  the  standard  of  mental 
discipline,  are  costly  to  the  institution,  and  are  un- 
necessary. This  is  no  reflection  upon  an  institution 
which  can  equip  and  maintain  different  courses,  which 
courses,  it  is  presumed,  are  elective.  As  there  are  ex- 
ceptions to  all  rules,  so  in  this  case  the  Michigan  Min- 
ing School  may  have  found  advantages  even  if  it  has 
not  yet  discovered  disadvantages. 

A graduate,  after  years  of  professional  practice,  said, 
“ A student  should  understand  at  the  outset  that  he  is 
to  pursue  any  study  that  is  required  of  him  ; for  he 


THE  ELECTIVE  SYSTEM. 


19 


may  find  that  the  first  thing  he  will  have  to  use  when 
he  leaves  college  is  that  which  he  most  despised  when 
in  it.”  Lay  greater  emphasis  on  the  “ how”  and  on 
the  “ what”  is  studied.  One  straight,  solid,  thorough 
course  without  electives  will  make  stronger  men  than 
one  weakened  by  electives. 

Professor  J.  Galbraith  said  that  he  had  listened 
with  great  interest  to  the  paper.  The  difficulties  men- 
tioned in  connection  with  the  ordinary  system  are 
more  or  less  acknowledged  by  all.  The  great  amount 
of  work  required  of  a student  under  this  system,  and 
the  undue  proportion  which  the  dry  and  apparently 
useless  work  bears  to  that  which  is  interesting,  make 
the  curriculum  to  some  extent  repulsive.  The  desire 
of  individual  professors  to  aggrandize  their  own  de- 
partments and  to  arrange  the  curriculum  to  suit  their 
special  requirements  may  in  some  cases  produce  a bad 
effect.  The  speaker  had  hoped  that  the  paper  would 
make  clear  a method  of  avoiding  some  of  these  diffi- 
culties, but  was  obliged  to  confess  that  he  did  not  see 
the  solution  in  what  had  been  said.  It  appeared  to 
him  that  the  only  persons  who  are  qualified  to  lay  down 
a curriculum  in  the  professional  courses  of  a technical 
college  are  the  members  of  the  faculty,  and  they  re- 
quire to  bring  their  combined  experience  and  knowl- 
edge to  bear  upon  the  problem.  The  student  certainly 
is  not  in  a fit  position  to  select  the  various  subjects 
leading  to  a professional  degree,  and  decide  the  order 
in  which  they  are  to  be  taken.  Of  course,  if  an  in- 
stitution decides  to  give  its  degree  in  one  subject  of 
study  as  distinguished  from  a professional  department, 
it  would  be  quite  a proper  course  for  the  student  to 


20 


THE  ELECTIVE  SYSTEM. 


consult  with  the  professor  of  that  subject  as  to  the 
preliminary  studies  that  might  be  necessary,  and  to 
follow  his  advice. 

Even  this  is  very  far  from  being  an  elective  system. 
The  professor  makes  practically  a fixed  course;  just  as 
in  the  case  of  graduation  in  a professional  department 
the  faculty  lay  down  a fixed  course,  and  where  the 
choice  of  the  student  comes  in  after  selecting  his  sub- 
ject of  graduation  is  not  very  clear.  No  practical 
method  can  be  devised  of  making  the  individual 
studies  in  a professional  course  elective  if  the  degree 
is  to  be  worth  anything,  and  the  speaker  did  not  think 
that  the  term  “ elective  system  ” ought  to  he  used 
where  this  is  not  done. 

Pkofessor  Wadsworth  stated  that  there  had  not  been 
the  slightest  lowering  in  the  work,  but  instead  of  that 
a very  decided  raising.  The  professors  of  to-day  de- 
mand of  their  students  in  the  Michigan  Mining  School, 
that  which  not  one  of  them  would  have  dared  to  de- 
mand the  year  before,  simply  because  the  burden  then 
was  too  great ; the  men  could  not  stand  the  strain  of 
so  many  subjects  as  those  demanded  by  the  required 
courses.  In  his  own  classes  he  had  done  work  that  he 
was  ashamed  to  do,  simply  because  he  must  do  it  or 
the  men  could  not  by  any  possibility  get  along.  The 
burden  was  beyond  that  of  human  endurance.  The 
student  now  takes  fewer  subjects  in  the  same  time, 
but  does  higher  and  better  work. 

If  modern  languages,  together  with  everything  else 
that  has  been  asked  for  from  time  to  time,  are  made 
a part  of  the  engineering  courses,  what  opportunity 
is  there  for  sufficient,  or  even  for  any,  real  engineering 


THE  ELECTIVE  SYSTEM. 


21 


training  ? If  engineering  studies  are  necessary  for  a 
man,  it  will  not  do  for  him,  in  his  engineering  course, 
to  spend  most  of  his  time  on  modern  languages  and 
on  a variety  of  unprofessional  studies  that  might  be 
interpolated  in  an  elective  course.  These  studies 
should  be  preparatory. 

The  elective  system  does  require  of  a man  that  he 
shall  take  a definite  amount  of  work  in  order  to  grad- 
uate ; he  must  take  the  same  amount  that  is  required  of 
him  to  graduate  in  a prescribed  course,  and  it  must  be 
strictly  in  the  line  of  professional  studies.  The  idea  that, 
in  an  elective  system,  a man  can  graduate  if  he  has 
spread  himself  over  any  given  number  of  studies  with- 
out regard  to  their  relations,  is  a thing  that  exists  in  no 
elective  system  outside  of  a kindergarten.  It  cannot 
exist.  No  man  can  study  calculus  until  he  has  studied 
algebra.  The  sequence  of  studies  must  be  followed, 
and  the  moment  this  is  done,  the  student  finds  him- 
self forced,  practically,  into  a proper  course  of  study. 
The  elective  system  is  a natural  and  logical  system 
and  it  reaches  the  ends  that  every  one  has  been  hoping 
to  obtain  in  the  required  courses.  It  removes  from 
each  student's  selected  course  the  special  studies  in 
which  he  cannot  naturally  succeed. 

Professor  Galbraith  suggested  that  in  that  case 
the  course  agrees  with  ordinary  practice,  but  contains 
only  what  are  considered  necessary  subjects. 

Professor  Wadsworth  agreed  to  this,  saying  that 
for  each  student  his  selected  course  became  for  him  a 
fixed  course — fixed  by  his  natural  tastes  and  abilities, 
and  not  fixed  by  a faculty  who  knew  and  could  know 
nothing  about  him. 


22 


THE  ELECTIVE  SYSTEM. 


He  continued  by  explaining  further  the  operation  of 
the  system  described.  When  the  professor  of  hydraulics 
demands  of  a student  a certain  amount  of  study,  he 
does  not  say  that  the  student  should  have  everything 
in  the  curriculum,  but  he  says  that  the  student  who 
comes  to  him  shall  take  calculus,  shall  take  analytical 
mechanics,  shall  take  physics,  shall  take  chemistry,  or 
whatever  studies  he  wishes.  The  student,  when  he 
enters  upon  his  course,  knows  that  if  he  is  to  take 
hydraulics,  he  must  prepare  himself  accordingly.  If 
he  wants  metallurgy,  the  professor  has  laid  down 
the  ground  previously  which  he  must  cover  to  take 
metallurgy.  He  cannot  graduate  under  one  profes- 
sor and  follow  only  one  professor’s  course,  for  no  three 
professors  even  can  teach  enough  subjects  to  give  a 
man  his  degree.  The  student  can,  if  he  wishes  to  do 
so,  on  one  hand  devote  his  time  more  particularly  to 
metallurgy,  chemistry,  and  geology  as  applied  to  min- 
ing ; or,  on  the  other  hand,  to  the  civil  engineering  or 
mining  engineering  sides.  Or  again,  he  can  give  most 
of  his  time  to  mechanical  engineering  or  electrical  en- 
gineering as  applied  to  mining,  and  give  less  to  the 
metallurgical  and  chemical  sides.  In  this  way  he  can 
follow  his  bent  of  mind  and  tastes  ; for  as  the  individu- 
ality of  the  student  varies,  so  he  can  modify  his 
course ; but  he  cannot  graduate  with  an  inferior  train- 
ing. The  training  is  deeper  and  more  thorough  than 
it  is  in  the  required  courses.  The  student  may  not 
take  as  many  studies,  but  he  does  better  and  more 
thorough  work. 

There  seems  to  be  an  inclination  to  make  the  criti- 
cism that  it  is  impossible  for  a student  to  choose  his 


THE  ELECTIVE  SYSTEM. 


23 


course  wisely  for  simply  one  year,  and  yet  he  is  ordi- 
narily required  to  choose  his  life  work  for  four  years ; 
that  excites  no  comment ; that  is  considered  perfectly 
proper.  If  a man  can  enter  a school  before  he  has  ever 
had  a year’s  experience  in  any  professional  training, 
and  select  his  course  for  four  years,  is  he  incompetent 
to  choose  it  for  only  one  year  ? That  does  not  seem 
logical.  With  a knowdedge  of  the  sequence  of  studies, 
and  under  the  guidance  of  professors,  the  speaker  be- 
lieved him  capable  of  choosing  and  choosing  well. 

There  is  a difficulty,  and  a very  serious  difficulty,  in 
the  elective  systems  in  many  of  the  literary  colleges ; 
and  that  difficulty  will  arise  in  the  engineering  col- 
leges unless  there  is  a controlling  supervision.  That 
difficulty  is  the  introduction  of  “soft”  courses.  The 
faculty  must  be  under  such  authority  that  the 
moment  any  member  undertakes  to  bid  for  students  by 
giving  “soft”  courses,  there  will  be  a certainty  of  his 
going  out  of  the  institution.  This  is  absolutely  essen- 
tial. No  good  system  of  any  kind,  required  or  elec- 
tive, is  possible  unless  incompetent  professors  are 
quickly  dispensed  with.  The  president,  or  whoever  is 
in  charge  of  an  institution,  must  have  backbone  and 
authority  enough  to  say  that  such  men  must  go.  This 
is  particularly  true  with  the  elective,  and  ought  to  be 
made  true  of  every  system. 

Professor  H.  S.  Jacoby  desired  to  ask  a question  as 
to  whether  there  had  been  in  the  writer’s  experience 
an  indication  of  a disposition  on  the  part  of  any  stu- 
dent to  choose  too  one-sided  a series  of  subjects. 

Professor  Wadsworth  replied  that  there  had  been 
none  so  far,  perhaps  because  the  system  is  guarded 
so  that  a student  can  not  very  well  do  this. 


24 


THE  ELECTIVE  SYSTEM. 


Professor  Jacoby  said  he  had  a great  deal  of  confi- 
dence in  the  ability  of  young  America  to  choose  very 
many  more  things  for  himself  than  he  is  often  given 
credit  for,  and  therefore  had  not  much  fear  in  that  di- 
rection, and  he  felt  very  anxious  to  ask  the  question  to 
more  authoritatively  learn  the  writer’s  ideas  upon  it. 

Professor  Storm  Bull  expressed,  as  his  under- 
standing of  Professor  Wadsworth’s  practice,  that  he 
allows  the  student  to  say  whether  he  wants  to  study 
English  or  anything  of  that  kind. 

Professor  Wadsworth  explained  that,  in  the  elec- 
tive system  described,  the  studies  are  limited  to  profes- 
sional studies.  English  and  similar  studies  are  pre- 
paratory. These  are  not  in  the  engineering  curricu- 
lum. With  free  opportunity  for  the  student  to  choose 
from  modern  languages  and  many  other  non-profes- 
sional studies,  in  connection  with  his  engineering  work, 
nothing  can  be  done  with  an  elective  system  and 
obtain  a high  grade  engineering  course.  The  student 
will  not  be  properly  an  engineering  student.  He  will 
become  a classical  or  a literary  student,  as  that  is  the 
line  of  least  resistance. 

The  system  of  electives  commences  in  the  Michigan 
Mining  School  at  the  beginning,  i.  e .,  with  the  fresh- 
man, immediately  upon  his  entrance. 

Professor  Bull  asked  what  was  required  for  admis- 
sion, whether  either  English  or  foreign  languages? 

Professor  Wadsworth  answered  that  the  require- 
ments for  entrance  with  the  former  rigid  courses  had 
been  somewhat  peculiar.  What  had  been  then  re- 
quired, and  what  is  required  now  under  the  elective 
system,  are  somewhat  different  things.  The  State 


THE  ELECTIVE  SYSTEM. 


25 


schools  of  higher  education  have  a certain  relation  to 
the  high  schools ; and  there  is  now  required  a regularly 
established  and  satisfactory  course  of  study  in  the  high 
schools,  if  their  diplomas  are  to  be  accepted  for  en- 
trance. A special  four  years’  course  of  study  has  been 
laid  out  by  the  Michigan  Mining  School,  and  recom- 
mended for  the  high  schools  to  follow  if  they  wish 
their  diplomas  to  be  accepted.  This  course  includes 
English  literature,  the  French  and  German  languages, 
physics,  political  economy,  rhetoric,  logic,  zoblogy, 
botany,  astronomy,  trigonometry  and  various  other 
studies,  such  as  in  the  old  days  constituted  much  of 
the  old  fashioned  college  course  outside  of  Latin  and 
Greek.  French  and  German  are  carried  through  the 
four  years.  Formerly,  under  a special  certificate  for 
admission  to  the  Mining  School,  only  the  mathematics, 
physics  and  astronomy  were  demanded  as  preparatory 
to  the  professional  studies,  somthing  the  same  as  is 
similarly  the  case  in  a law  or  a medical  school ; that  is, 
there  was  required  algebra  through  quadratic  equa- 
tions ; arithmetic  with  the  metric  system  ; geometry, 
plane,  solid  and  spherical ; physics ; elements  of  as- 
tronomy, and  book-keeping.  Book-keeping  was  re- 
quired simply  because  in  mining  work  the  students 
ought  to  understand  mine  accounts. 

At  this  time,  if  a student  will  satisfactorily  pass 
an  examination  at  the  Mining  School  in  the  subjects 
named  above,  he  will  be  admitted.  The  situation 
is  peculiar ; everywhere  in  the  land,  and  particu- 
larly in  a mining  district,  there  are  a great  many 
young  men  who  have  gone  into  practical  business 
when  they  were  about  fifteen  or  sixteen  ; later,  when 
they  have  arrived  at  the  age  of  eighteen  or  twenty,  or 


26 


THE  ELECTIVE  SYSTEM. 


twenty-five,  they  have  a desire  to  obtain  an  education. 
The  high  school  tells  them,  “ You  .must  come  to  us 
four  years,  then  you  must  go  to  some  other  institution 
three  or  four  years  to  obtain  your  degree.”  This  is  a 
virtual  embargo  on  these  young  men.  They  often 
have  great  ability ; they  work  hard  and  they  make 
the  best  students.  Therefore  these  men  are  informed 
that  if  they  will  come  to  the  Michigan  Mining  School, 
after  a two  years’  special  course  in  the  high  school, 
and  also  after  they  are  nineteen  years  of  age,  or  else 
will  come  to  the  institution  and  pass  its  examination 
in  the  special  subjects  above  named,  they  will  be  al- 
lowed to  enter.  No  difficulties  have  thus  far  resulted 
to  the  Mining  School  from  doing  this.  Experience  has 
shown  that  graduates  of  the  high  school  do  just  as  well 
in  the  higher  and  harder  work,  and  stand  the  wear 
and  tear  of  an  engineering  professional  training  in  the 
Mining  School,  as  well  as  do  the  graduates  of  colleges 
and  universities ; oftentimes  better,  for  the  simple  rea- 
son that  the  majority  of  the  latter  have  been  trained 
to  memorize,  and  do  not  know  how  to  reason.  They 
have  committed  to  memory  Greek  and  Latin  grammars 
and  works  of  that  kind,  so  that  they  have  unfitted 
themselves  to  think  over  practical  questions.  The  in- 
struction given  students  at  the  Michigan  Mining  School 
incorporates  a vast  amount  of  practical  work  as  an  ap- 
plication of  the  principles  taught. 

Professor  W.  F.  M.  Goss  said  that  if  he  under- 
stood the  paper,  it  stated  that  the  elective  system 
would  do  three  things  : It  would  avoid  the  overcrowd- 
ing of  courses ; it  would  operate  to  cut  out  subjects 
which  have  no  real  value,  if  any  such  exist ; and  it 
would  serve  as  means  by  which  undesirable  students 


THE  ELECTIVE  SYSTEM. 


27 


may  readily  be  sent  away.  Since  these  are  all  matters 
which  under  any  system  of  courses  are  well  within  the 
control  of  the  faculty,  the  real  claim  seems  to  be  that 
the  elective  system  will  somehow  protect  the  faculty 
against  itself.  He  thought  that  the  average  faculty 
needed  no  such  protection. 

Professor  Wadsworth  replied  that  the  three  things 
mentioned  covered  a part  of  the  advantages,  since  ex- 
perience shows  that  the  average  faculty  fails  to  accom- 
plish these  objects  with  a required  course. 

Professor  G.  W.  Bissell  seemed  to  think  it  not  a 
fair  statement  that  a student  who  enters  a college  and 
chooses  one  of  the  engineering  courses,  and  who  after- 
wards changes  his  course,  loses  four  years’  time.  He 
had  known  instances  in  which  a student  entering  in 
civil  engineering  had  changed  to  electrical  engineer- 
ing after  one  year,  without  sacrificing  very  much  of 
the  first  year’s  time  or  losing  very  much  of  the  second 
year’s  time  ; the  student  need  not  throw  away  the 
whole  four  years  if  he  enters  in  the  ordinary  way  and 
then  finds  that  he  has  made  a mistake  and  changes  to 
some  other  course.  Then  as  to  the  elective  system,  or 
the  elective  feature  of  the  system  discussed  by  Pro- 
fessor Wadsworth,  if  the  student  were  to  enter  any  en- 
gineering college  and  elect,  for  instance,  hydraulic 
engineering,  he  would  follow  out  much  the  same  course 
of  study  under  the  elective  system  at  the  Michigan 
School  of  Mines  as  he  would  under  a prescribed  sys- 
tem in  any  other  engineering  college  of  high  standing, 
provided,  of  course,  that  the  professors  in  both  schools 
have  the  same  ideas — and  there  would  not  probably 
be  much  difference — as  to  what  constitutes  a proper 
course  of  study  in  hydraulic  engineering.  It  seemed 


28 


THE  ELECTIVE  SYSTEM. 


to  be  not  very  different  from  specializing,  or  taking  a 
special  engineering  course  in  other  institutions  of  the 
same  grade. 

Professor  Albert  Kingsbury  said  that  he  could 
hardly  see  how  this  elective  system  could  apply  in  the 
average  college.  Indeed,  his  understanding  was  that 
Professor  Wadsworth  does  not  think  it  will  so  apply. 

Professor  Wadsworth  replied  that  his  position 
was  that,  while  the  elective  system  can  be  used  in 
every  college,  the  special  course  that  had  been  ar- 
ranged for  the  Mining  School  would  not,  as  it  then 
stood,  apply  to  the  average  college  ; he  would  always 
vary  it  with  the  special  conditions  of  every  institution. 

Professor  Kingsbury  thought  that  he  could  hardly 
make  a beginning  with  an  elective  system  in  a college 
such  as  the  one  in  which  he  is  occupied.  The  elective 
system  which  has  been  discussed  appears  to  be  one  in 
which  the  student  is  lead  to  suppose  that  he  is  doing 
the  electing,  while  in  fact  the  faculty  is  doing  it,  and 
the  chief  gain  comes  from  a mere  matter  of  policy  in 
working  upon  the  human  nature  of  the  students. 

Professor  Wadsworth  replied  by  asking  if  it  is  not 
always  well  to  oil  the  machinery,  in  order  to  make  it 
run  more  smoothly  and  with  less  friction. 

Professor  Kingsbury  further  explained  as  his  un- 
derstanding of  the  system  that,  if  the  student  is  to  take 
applied  mechanics,  the  professor  says  to  him,  “ You 
must  have  the  subject  of  calculus,”  and  when  he  at- 
tempts to  study  the  calculus  he  is  told,  “ You  must 
first  know  algebra,”  and  when  he  wishes  to  study 
algebra  the  professor  says  to  him,  “ It  is  necessary  for 
you  to  know  something  about  arithmetic,”  and  so  on 


THE  ELECTIVE  SYSTEM. 


29 


down ; and  when  all  of  these  are  followed  down  in  this 
inverse  order  and  properly  fixed,  there  is  a fixed 
course  of  instruction ; and  when  provision  is  made  for 
giving  the  instruction  in  this  course,  there  must  be  a 
fixed  schedule  ; and  by  the  time  the  fixed  schedule  is 
established,  there  is  a fixed  system  just  such  as  most 
colleges  are  following. 

Professor  Wadsworth  said  that  it  seemed  to  him, 
from  the  discussion,  that  the  trouble  is  that  none  of 
the  gentlemen,  or  few  of  them  at  any  rate,  have  ever 
used  the  elective  system  in  engineering  work,  and  con- 
sequently most  of  the  criticisms  do  not  apply  to  that 
system  as  it  actually  is.  It  should  not  be  supposed 
that  the  speaker  had  no  knowledge  of  a required  sys- 
tem. In  an  experience  of  thirty-three  years,  during 
the  chief  portion  of  the  time  he  had  taught  in  a fixed 
system,  and  had  used  optional  systems  and  required 
systems  ‘‘ad  infinitum”  almost,  so  that  with  most  of 
the  purposes  of  the  required  systems  he  is  familiar. 
From  actual  experience  he  would  say  that  the  amount 
of  time,  labor,  drudgery  and  other  things  that  the  elec- 
tive system  does  save,  is  something  that  he  is  unable 
to  find  wTords  adequate  to  express,  so  that  his  hearers 
will  understand  it  without  trying  it.  This  saving  is 
an  actual  fact,  speaking  from  experience,  and  an  ex- 
perience of  long  years  with  the  different  systems.  In 
certain  schools  he  would  advise  keeping  the  required 
system,  and  he  certainly  would  be  governed  always 
by  the  practical  requirements  of  each  special  case.  He 
would  not,  in  the  case  of  another  college,  introduce 
any  new  system  until  he  knew  that  a change  would 
be  proper  and  beneficial  to  the  institution.  Most  of 
the  objections  which  had  been  here  made,  apply  to  an 


30 


THE  ELECTIVE  SYSTEM. 


imaginary  something,  different  from  a true  elective 
system.  He  would  be  glad  to  send  to  any  one  the 
catalogue  of  the  Michigan  Mining  School,  as  it  will 
show,  as  near  as  a catalogue  can,  how  the  elective  sys- 
tem has  been  arranged  there. 

Professor  Goss  said  that  he  should  regret  to  have  it 
inferred  from  his  previous  remarks  that  he  questioned 
the  value  of  the  work  done  in  the  institution  with 
which  Professor  Wadsworth  is  connected.  He  could 
readily  believe  that  Professor  Wadsworth’s  plan  might 
give  good  results,  and  desired  simply  to  question 
whether  the  reforms  which  are  stated  to  be  the  result 
of  an  adoption  of  the  elective  system  could  not  have 
been  brought  about  in  some  other  way.  If  so,  he 
thought  that  the  success  of  the  reforms  should  not  be 
used  as  an  argument  to  sustain  the  elective  system. 

Professor  W.  K.  Hatt  found  that  his  impression 
was  not  clear  relative  to  one  thing.  The  author  said 
that  when  the  student  found  out  the  incompetence  of 
the  instructor  he  would  leave  him  and  go  to  another 
class.  The  speaker  wished  to  inquire  if  the  student 
was  permitted  to  control  the  character  of  his  instruc- 
tion, and,  if  so,  on  what  features  the  student  based  his 
judgment. 

Professor  Wadsworth  replied  that  he  hardly  in- 
tended to  convey  that  idea.  It  was  stated  that  the 
elective  system  would  show  up  the  incompetence  of 
the  instructor,  because  the  teacher  in  Mining  Engi- 
neering or  in  any  advanced  subject  would  require  that 
the  students  should  have  had  proper  instruction  in  cal- 
culus, analytic  mechanics,  mechanism,  etc.  If  stu- 
dents came  to  that  professor  prepared  properly,  it  would 
then  be  discovered  that  they  were  well  taught ; if  im- 


THE  ELECTIVE  SYSTEM. 


31 


properly  instructed,  this  would  also  be  known  as 
quickly ; since,  if  any  professor  is  to  do  his  work  rightly, 
the  students  must  be  thoroughly  taught  in  the  required 
preparatory  subjects  when  they  come  to  him.  In  other 
words,  every  professor  naturally  insists  that  the  pre- 
paratory work  for  his  classes  shall  be  done  as  it  should 
be,  since  stopping  a student  in  one  subject  does  not 
cost  him  a year’s  time,  as  it  often  does  in  the  required 
systems.  He  must  insist  on  this  or  it  is  fatal  to  his  in- 
struction. It  is  in  part  this  necessary  building  up 
from  the  foundation  in  this  way  that  makes  the  elec- 
tive system’s  success.  The  students  themselves  are 
enthusiastic  over  their  studies,  and  they  do  not  wish 
to  be  under  a teacher  who  does  not  do  good  work. 

Further,  it  has  resulted  in  a decided  elevation  of  the 
moral  tone.  It  has  an  excellent  effect  where  there  is 
an  incompetent  professor,  or  one  who  is  exceedingly 
unpopular,  or  one  who  does  not  handle  matters  in  the 
right  manner.  Instead  of  a class  rebellion,  or  perhaps 
a petition  presented  to  the  faculty  or  board,  accom- 
panied with  a statement  that  the  students  will  leave 
the  school,  etc.,  the  result  is  simply  a resolve  on  the 
part  of  the  students  not  to  take  the  subjects  that  pro- 
fessor has  the  next  year.  It  culminates  not  in  a rebel- 
lion, but  in  the  idea  “I  will  not  take  that  subject 
next  year.  I will  go  more  into  the  civil  engineering 
line,  or  the  metallurgical  line,  or  into  some  other  sub- 
ject that  will  enable  me  to  avoid  the  obnoxious 
teacher.”  This  attitude  quickly  shows  itself  and  the 
trouble  is  readily  diagnosed.  The  teacher  is  told  by 
a live  president  what  the  trouble  is,  and  he  is  obliged 
to  do  his  work  properly  or  leave  the  institution. 

Professor  Bull  inquired  if  those  professors  who 


32 


THE  ELECTIVE  SYSTEM. 


offer  “ snaps,”  as  they  call  them,  become  popular  at 
once  and  attract  the  most  students? 

Professor  Wadsworth  replied  that  they  do  not  be- 
come popular  in  engineering  colleges,  but  they  do  at- 
tract students  to  lectures  in  literary  colleges,  where 
there  are  usually  numerous  subjects  that  require  no 
advanced  preparation.  The  question  of  the  literary 
education  of  a student  is  entirely  different  from  the 
question  of  his  professional  education.  The  profes- 
sional student  in  most  cases  knows  that,  unless  his  work 
is  done  well,  he  will  not  be  a competent  man  in  his 
profession  after  graduating.  In  the  case  of  a literary 
college  many  of  the  students  desire  only  athletics  and 
to  obtain  a polish,  consequently  they  elect  anything 
that  will  give  them  their  polish  and  degree.  Further, 
in  a literary  college  there  is  usually  a much  larger 
range  of  studies  from  which  students  can  choose. 

Professor  M.  T.  Magruder  wished  to  ask  Profes- 
sor Wadsworth  if  his  students  are  not  very  much  older 
than  the  average  student  of  the  technical  colleges  ? 

Professor  Wadsworth  said  that  the  average  age 
this  year  is  23  years ; in  former  years  it  had  sometimes 
been  greater,  sometimes  less.  Certain  conditions  in 
the  Mining  School  may  have  raised  it  compared  with 
most  other  colleges,  notably  the  special  students,  since 
there  have  been  some  who  were  56  years  of  age. 

Professor  Kingsbury  asked  if  he  understood  cor- 
rectly that  this  system  had  been  in  use  only  one  year 
at  the  Michigan  Mining  School? 

Professor  Wadsworth  replied  that  this  was  all. 

Professor  Kingsbury  said  that  he  would  be  much 
pleased  to  hear  at  the  next  meeting  how  it  works,  and 
for  several  years  following. 


DISCUSSIONS. 


33 


DISCUSSIONS. 


On  the  Desirability  of  Instruction  of  Undergraduates  in  the 
Ethics  of  the  Engineering  Profession.  By  Charles  Carroll 
Brown,  Bloomington,  Ills.  r 

Professor  M.  E.  Wadsworth  desired  to  ask  for  in- 
formation, what  is  done  in  the  different  institutions 
in  that  direction?  At  the  institution  with  which  he 
is  connected  the  subject  of  engineering  contracts  and 
the  question  of  ethics  and  principles  of  engineering  is 
taken  up  in  connection  with  mining  engineering  and 
with  mine  management  and  mine  accounts.  Is  not 
some  provision  of  that  kind  made  in  almost  all  of  the 
colleges  ? 


The  Study  of  Modern  Languages  in  Engineering  Courses.  By 
Thomas  M.  Drown,  President  of  the  Lehigh  University, 
South  Bethlehem,  Pa. 

Professor  M.  E.  WAdsworth  desired  to  ask  a ques- 
tion : Could  not  the  difficulty  that  Professor  Fuertes 
has  spoken  of,  be  done  away  with  by  taking  the  stand 
that  is  taken  in  other  professions,  i.  e .,  that  the  so- 
called  general  training  studies  should  be  left  out  of 
the  engineering  curriculum  ? Is  it  not  possible  to  oc- 
cupy a high  plane  and  say  that  the  engineer  is  just  as 
advanced  professionally  as  anyone  else  ? Can  he  not 


34 


DISCUSSIONS. 


start  his  professional  training  where  the  other  profes- 
sions do  ? Instead  of  asking  the  incorporation  in  the 
engineering  college  course  of  English  Literature  and 
numerous  other  subjects  that  belong  to  general  cul- 
ture and  education,  should  they  not  be  put  into  the 
preparatory  school  where  they  properly  belong  ? The 
engineering  profession  is  belittled  by  starting  its  edu- 
cation so  low.  Is  it  not  possible  to  start  it  on  the  same 
plane  that  other  professions  select  ? In  this  way  it 
would  seem  that  the  colleges  could  have  genuine  en- 
gineering courses  and  not  be  obliged  to  sacrifice  their 
engineering  studies  to  the  continual  demand  for  the 
interpolation  in  the  course  of  literary  subjects. 


An  Experiment  in  the  Conduct  of  Field  Practice.  By  Frank 

0.  Marvin,  Professor  of  Civil  Engineering,  University  of 

Kansas,  Lawrence,  Kansas. 

Professor  M.  E.  Wadsworth  wished  to  speak  about 
a point  which  does  not  affect  the  method  of  Professor 
Marvin  as  presented,  nor  the  one  Professor  Fuertes 
had  spoken  of,  but  which  simply  describes  an  attempt 
to  solve  the  question  of  field  work  in  surveying  in  a 
special  situation.  Every  institution  must  have  its 
own  methods.  At  the  Michigan  Mining  School  the 
question  that  presented  itself  to  the  institution  at  first, 
was  some  method  of  taking  care  of  the  practical  as 
well  as  of  the  theoretical  work.  Also,  in  the  time 
that  was  allowed  the  student,  to  give  him  an  amount 
of  experience  that  would  enable  him  to  apply  his 
knowledge  after  graduation.  That  is,  while  he  might 
know  the  theory,  if  he  could  not  adjust  his  instru- 


DISCUSSIONS. 


35 


ments  and  practically  meet  the  different  problem's 
likely  to  come  before  him,  his  previous  study  was 
worthless  to  him  until  he  had  learned  later,  by  prac- 
tice, how  to  apply  it.  The  question  was  solved  in  this 
way : The  ordinary  summer  vacation  work  is  by  most 
students  taken  as  a vacation,  a general  good  time  ; 
they  do  the  work  when  they  are  compelled  to,  but 
they  will  not  do  it  well  unless  absolutely  obliged  to. 
The  failure  of  the  summer  school  to  impart  real  in- 
struction becomes  strongly  marked  if  there  happens 
to  be  in  charge  of  it  an  instructor  who  is  what  stu- 
dents term  “a  good  fellow,”  but  who  has  no  idea  of 
real  discipline  or  systematic  instruction.  The  method 
that  the  Michigan  college  employed  was  this : all  of 
the  practical  work  was  put  in  the  regular  year,  or 
made  part  of  the  regular  system.  Thus  the  student’s 
work  in  the  summer  time  is  as  much  a constituent 
part  of  the  school  course  as  it  is  in  the  winter  term. 
To  do  this  the  regular  school  year  was  increased  to  45 
weeks.  In  the  field  surveying,  the  practical  work 
covers  various  different  subjects,  like  plane  surveying, 
topographical  work  with  stadia  and  plane  table, 
geodetic  work,  railroad  surveying,  etc.  The  practical 
work  in  surveying,  exclusive  of  mining  surveying, 
occupies  eleven  weeks  of  the  year,  nine  hours  a day 
for  five  days  a week,  Saturday  is  taken  usually  in 
making  up  for  the  rainy  days,  for  draughting,  for 
making  up  back  work,  etc.  The  extra  day  is  needed 
by  many  of  the  students,  for  while  some  are  rapid 
workers,  others  are  slow.  The  student  in  the  field,  in 
his  surveying,  is  under  the  ordinary  drill  and  disci- 
pline of  the  school,  and  he  is  made  to  work  just  as  a 


36 


DISCUSSIONS. 


young  surveyor  is  required  to  work  when  he  com- 
mences his  practice  subsequent  to  graduation.  The 
instruction  in  theoretical  surveying  has,  heretofore, 
been  given  during  the  fall  and  winter  terms.  That 
has  been  found  to  be  disadvantageous,  owing  to  the 
fact  that  the  student  forgets  the  theory  before  he  has 
time  to  apply  it.  Consequently  during  the  school 
year  1896-7,  the  theoretical  instruction  will  be  given 
in  connection  with  the  field  work  of  eleven  weeks ; 
that  is,  the  student  will  hear  the  lectures  and  have 
his  recitations  in  the  morning  at  eight  o’clock,  going 
into  the  field  immediately  after,  and  applying  the 
principles  directly  in  practice. 

Professor  Wadsworth  explained  that  he  believed 
all  that  Professor  Allen  said  in  regard  to  the  value  of 
practicing  students  in  surveying  during  the  later  por- 
tions of  their  courses ; but  in  the  case  of  the  Michigan 
Mining  School  the  mining  surveying,  which  is  done 
underground  in  the  mines  in  the  spring,  requires  that 
the  plane  and  railroad  surveying  preparatory  to  it  shall 
come  during  the  preceding  summer.  Further,  since 
the  mining  surveying  is  preliminary  to  the  mining 
engineering,  the  order  in  which  the  three  subjects 
naturally  fall  is  as  follows:  First  Year:  Plane  and 
Railroad  Surveying,  Principles  of  Mining;  Second 
Year : Mining  and  Mine  Surveying,  Theory  and  Prac- 
tice; Third  Year:  Mining  Engineering,  Mine  Man- 
agements and  Accounts. 


DISCUSSIONS. 


37 


Is  Not  Too  Much  Time  Given  to  Merely  Manual  Work  in  the 
Shops.  By  W.  H.  Schuerman,  Dean  of  Engineering  De- 
partment, Vanderbilt  University,  Nashville,  Tenn. 

Professor  M.  E.  Wadsworth  said  that  it  seemed 
to  him  in  listening  to  Professor  Schuerman’s  paper  that 
the  ordinary  manual  training  which  was  referred  to 
in  it  is  the  work  that  is  done  in  most  schools  by  boys 
of  the  age  of  15  or  16  ; while  the  shop  practice  of  en- 
gineering colleges,  properly  speaking,  is  more  apt  to 
be  done  by  young  men  of  more  mature  age,  and  is  a 
work  of  a different  grade  and  character.  For  ordinary 
manual  training,  the  speaker  could  see  no  objections 
to  the  author’s  recommendations. 

He  wished,  however,  to  give  the  experience  of  the 
Michigan  Mining  School  in  handling  shop  practice 
for  students  of  engineering,  averaging  21  years  of  age 
and  upwards.  The  speaker  did  this  in  the  hope  of 
bringing  out  the  practical  experience  of  others  in  like 
work. 

At  the  Michigan  college,  the  shop  practice  is  con- 
sidered to  be  of  great  value  and  use.  The  mining 
engineers  have  many  occasions  to  use  their  knowledge 
of  shopwork  in  the  mines  and  about  their  plants. 
The  graduates  frequently  express  themselves  strongly 
in  favor  of  this  work,  as  something  that  has  proved 
very  useful  to  them  in  their  subsequent  practice. 

In  order  to  take  the  shop  practice  and  receive  any 
credit  in  it  at  the  Michigan  college,  it  is  required  of 
every  student  that  he  shall  have  previously  completed 
the  requisite  work  in  geometry,  algebra,  plane  trigo- 
nometry, mechanical  drawing,  physics,  general  experi- 
mental chemistry,  and  the  properties  of  materials. 


38 


DISCUSSIONS. 


The  time  given  to  the  shopwork  is  eleven  weeks 
during  the  summer  term.  It  occupies  nine  hours  a 
day.  Five  and  one  half  weeks  of  the  eleven  are  given 
to  practice  in  wood-working,  and  five  and  one 
half  weeks  to  metal-working.  The  class  is  divided 
into  two  sections  which  alternate ; that  is,  one  half  of 
the  class  works  for  five  and  one  half  weeks  in  the 
wood  shop,  while  the  other  half  works  in  the  metal 
shop. 

The  preliminary  practice  in  learning  to  handle  the 
tools  takes  only  a few  days  for  the  average  student, 
usually  two.  After  this  introductory  work,  the  time 
is  spent  entirely  upon  material  that  is  to  be  used  in  the 
institution,  i.  e.,  upon  work  which  is  of  practical  value. 

The  shops  are  conducted  upon  the  principles  in 
vogue  in  outside  shops,  and  the  student  is  made  to 
understand  clearly  the  value  of  time,  material  and 
quality  of  work  done.  Close  record  is  kept  of  the 
time  spent  on  each  job,  and  any  work  which  fails  to 
pass  inspection  is  promptly  rejected.  If  any  of  the 
material  has  been  destroyed  by  defective  work,  the 
student  is  required  to  pay  the  full  value  of  the  stock 
used  up  by  his  carelessness. 

Experience  shows  that  the  students  have  a deep  in- 
terest in  their  shop  practice,  because  they  feel  that  they 
are  making  something  that  can  be  used.  In  this  way 
they  receive  the  same  mental  training  that  comes  in 
actual  practice  in  planning  and  arranging  work  for 
their  own  or  for  commercial  uses. 

Lectures  are  given  to  the  students  upon  the  work 
and  its  principles,  text-books  are  studied,  and  recita- 
tions are  required,  the  same  as  is  the  case  in  the  other 
departments  of  engineering. 


DISCUSSIONS. 


39 


After  the  shop  practice  has  been  completed  it  has 
been  found  by  experience  that  it  is  of  practical  use  as 
a preparation  for  more  advanced  subjects,  like  engi- 
neering design,  metallurgical  design,  machine  design, 
mechanical  engineering,  electrical  engineering,  labora- 
tory practice  both  in  mechanical  and  electrical  engi- 
neering, ore  dressing,  etc. 

The  speaker  would  be  pleased  to  learn  of  the  prac- 
tice and  customs  of  other  institutions,  and  how  their 
instructors  handle  shop  practice.  Also  whether  or 
not  the  work  has  been  found  to  be  of  vital  interest  and 
of  real  use  to  the  students. 


